Nursing and midwifery graduate programs

We offer 6 and 12 month graduate programs for newly qualified registered nurses and midwives. The programs help you develop your nursing or midwifery skills in a supportive learning environment and include:

  • a detailed orientation
  • dedicated nurse educators and clinical facilitators
  • clinical and simulation learning
  • study days
  • mentor support.

As a graduate nurse or midwife, you'll work a minimum of 40 hours a fortnight, but you can work up to 76 hours. Learn more about pay and benefits on the Queensland Health careers website or watch our videos.

Graduate Programs: A great place to work

We have an exceptional program for graduates here in Metro South. We offer support, training, and articulation points towards postgraduate university degrees. The experience that you get here is second to none. With future expansion in Metro South, there is a wonderful opportunity for graduate nurses to come and join us and commence their career path.

We have such a range of specialties across our different facilities. There are so many different areas that we can go into. Graduates will be exposed to a variety of different areas, from medical and surgical specialties to critical care areas; the opportunities are endless. You really get exposed to what's going on in healthcare. You get a wide range of patients and cases, providing quite a great exposure when you first come out from university.

We're doing a transitions program which is really good, helping us transition into ED. If you choose Metro South, you'll be lucky enough to work in an organization that's committed to developing innovation, with lots of quality initiatives that really enhance the patient journey. It is a digital hospital which is excellent, and we do like to participate in all health promotion activities. We really understand the importance of patient-centered care, and that's as a result of our frameworks that we have around us.

Metro South is a great place to be as a grad. For us, we have a great culture here. We love our graduates, we love to teach them. They get to be with us through that whole time and develop this great sense of camaraderie. They were able to support more, especially knowing our culture-wise from different nationalities. It's very inclusive, so you can be someone of another culture, you can be a mature-age student like myself, and you feel welcomed and embraced all of that.

I've developed a diverse range of not only clinical skills but clinical skills within different environments. I've seen the education and the effort that they've put into all our grads here in ED, and you can just tell that people are always there to do the best work that they can. What's even better is that we can actually offer them mentorship as well on the ward, so we're making a very personalized program for our grads.

We are one big family, we look after each other, we love working together. That's one thing that is more important than anything else I think is the team who you are surrounded by. Metro South gives you the best chance to grow as an individual and the best start to your career as a graduate.

Graduate Programs: Midwifery Services

Our graduates are joining a supportive and welcoming team when they become part of the midwifery team. Graduate midwives have a great opportunity to put knowledge into practice. One of the benefits of working as a midwife in Metro South is the diversity among patients, and you will have the opportunity to work with families from varied backgrounds and cultures and support them in a key moment in their lives. At Metro South Health, you can experience caring for women with all levels of risk and in different models of care, including hospital, community-based, rural, and midwifery group practice. We care for some of the most vulnerable women in our community. You will care for women and babies who are each experiencing a unique version of pregnancy, labor, birth, and the postnatal period. As a graduate midwife, no two days are ever the same. By the end of the graduate year, you will be a competent and confident midwife with experience in a range of areas, including antenatal clinic, birth suite, special care nursery, and the inpatient unit. We value graduate midwives because they bring with them the most up-to-date theoretical knowledge from their university training and help us to ensure our practice is contemporary and evidence-based. If you want to join our team to begin your journey to becoming a confident and skilled midwife, prefer a midwifery graduate program at Metro South Health.

Graduate Programs: One big family

The best part of being a midwife is being able to work with families and women, following the women throughout their pregnancy, birth, and postnatal journey. I love caring for women and families during such a significant time in their lives, being able to share in the joy of some of life's most special moments.

My name's Rowena. I'm a graduate midwife at Logan Hospital. My favorite thing about being a midwife is helping parents transition to parenthood and seeing the early family unit develop.

My name is Kayla. I am a graduate registered midwife here at Beaudesert Hospital. I did all my placements within Metro South and loved my experience. Definitely, my first birth as a registered midwife. It was very exciting. I've had a few more since then. Births I'll remember forever.

Hi, I'm Cassey, and I'm a registered midwife. I'm Shaina, and I'm a registered midwife. I'm Toni, and I'm a registered midwife. It feels like home here. I've had all of my babies with Metro South, and it's just such a close-knit team. Our job is really important, and it can be really scary sometimes knowing that you're the person who's going to take responsibility. They've been amazing with helping me feel confident, supported, and I know we are providing the best care we can for our women.

I preferenced Metro South in my graduate application because I know that it has a fantastic support network and education system. Not only the people that you graduated with but your whole team that you can get support from. They've all been there at some stage. Everyone has been so supportive and really encouraged learning. Everybody really tries their best to make sure you do your best.

Working in Metro South as a graduate midwife gives you the opportunities to work at the antenatal clinics, the birthing suites, the maternity ward which includes antenatal and postnatal care, and also the special care nursery. I was lucky enough to be one of the graduates who rotated out to Beaudesert. I really, really loved the midwifery unit there. I really loved working with the women there. The whole hospital was just so welcoming and beautiful.

We care for lots of young mothers, people from different cultures, people from lots of different backgrounds. The highlight of being a new grad is being able to go out into the workforce and actually being able to work independently as a midwife. You're going to have an easier experience in getting to develop yourself as you develop more and more confidence in that role as a registered midwife.

One of the best things about being a clinical facilitator for the new grads is when I get a call for assistance that I've got the ability to go and help them. One of the most rewarding things about doing it is for those grades to say "thank you very much, I'm right, I'm on my feet now".

We are one big family. We look after each other. We love working together. We love our mums and babies, and we will look after you. It's the best job in the world!

Graduate Programs: Education. Training. Support.

We're looking for graduates who are willing to commit to some hard work and learn lots. We can offer you a supportive environment that provides you with the tools you need to build a rewarding and enriching career. We have a really strong culture that supports us in helping to transition our graduates into the workforce and actually being part of the team. We really value you and we welcome you into our team and into the profession.

We have a really supportive environment not only with our Clinical Facilitators but also with our Registered Nurses, Registered Midwives, Educators, NUMs, and Ward Staff. I've never felt like I couldn't approach anyone that was sort of above me and the team leaders, especially.

Metro South is a good stepping stone for your grad program because you have a lot of resources, a lot of education, and professional development. The training and the support that we receive are just, I think, top class. Educate them, train them, and support them well, because in the future they'll be looking after us. They help us as well to keep up to date and to help keep enthusiastic about things.

We know you can help us as much as we believe that we can help you. And Metro South is just a great place to work and learn.

Graduate Programs: Clinical Facilitators

The Clinical Facilitators have been an amazing resource, helping us transition and really consolidating the skills that we learnt, putting them into everyday practice. Transitioning from a student nurse to a registered nurse has been a really awesome experience, and I'm really grateful to have all of our Clinical Facilitators around to support me. They're so helpful all the time, especially when you're getting overwhelmed with the shift, and you've just got so much to do. They'll always spring up just in time to save the day. Sometimes I feel like I was going to have a meltdown in the corridor, and so that care over the past six months has been invaluable. They've been amazing in being on the floor and helping our staff and our graduates. I couldn't have got through my first six weeks without having my Clinical Facilitator here.

The Clinical Facilitators allowed me to develop new skills as a graduate RN. Sometimes we, unfortunately, don't have enough time to teach the grads some of their new skills, and the CF team really helped with that. Without the support of my Clinical Facilitators, I don't think I would be managing as well as I am. We have been surrounded by amazing facilitators that have helped us every step of the way.

Metro South was great because they're, you know, great facilities, great support, great staff. They're really supportive people who are skilled and experienced in multiple different areas which is really helpful. They're always understanding, willing to listen to you, provide that extra support, go the extra mile for you as well. I know it was a bit hard for them to come and help us clinically because Special Care is such a different world, but it was always really nice to have a familiar face come in just for a chat.

It's been great to have them come around the wards and just check up on how we're going. It really helps us as a team on the ward. We feel that our grads are really well supported. It's been excellent to have those experienced, knowledgeable, skillful clinicians supporting our grads out of hours when we're not here, and they are always there to ensure that when they need help with any new assessments that they have to do or new techniques, they're there to support them and guide them through the initial year. I've had feedback from the grads this year, and they are so blown away by the support, the encouragement, and the advice that they got. The graduate team has just been phenomenal in helping us in setting us up for a great career. I think we all really appreciate everything they've done. They're a great asset to our team. They do an amazing job. I just can't wait to see what they can do in the future with this amazing workforce that we have.


We welcome applications from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and applicants with diverse backgrounds.

Clinical areas

We have graduate nursing placements at all our hospitals and health service facilities.

Graduate midwifery placements are only available at Logan, Beaudesert and Redland hospitals.

We offer over 50 different clinical programs across our hospitals and health services including:

  • cancer care
  • community care
  • ear nose and throat (ENT)
  • emergency, intensive and critical care
  • gastroenterological care
  • haematology
  • health contact centre
  • heart health and cardiac care
  • mental health
  • medical
  • midwifery group practice, antenatal clinics and assessment centres
  • neurology
  • older person care
  • oral health
  • orthopaedics
  • paediatrics and neonatal care
  • palliative care
  • rehabilitation
  • renal care
  • residential care
  • surgery and perioperative care

You can choose your clinical preferences when you apply.  Choose your preferred hospital to find out more about the available clinical programs and specialty areas.


Insight program

Our insight program is an initiative that you will take part in your first year as a graduate. You'll have the opportunity to identify an improvement to create a new initiative in the hospital or health service you're at. You'll be supported by our clinical teams and nurse educators to implement your initiative.

Insight commenced in Metro South in 2017 and is embedded as part of the formal graduate program. Our graduates have completed quality improvement initiatives across acute care, medical, surgical, rehabilitation and women’s and children’s health services.

Graduate Programs: Insight - New Eyes, Enhanced Vision

Metro South values graduates' perspective on how we, as an organization, can improve our care delivery and experience. We recognized that our graduates were an untapped potential when it came to innovation and were eager to provide them with a platform to showcase their visions.

The Insight program is an initiative that all Metro South graduates get to participate in during the first year of practice. Graduates are provided with an opportunity to identify something that they would like to improve and are supported throughout the year to roll these initiatives out.

Since its commencement in 2017, Metro South has had over 50 graduates initiate Nursing and Midwifery quality initiatives across a large area of acute care, medical-surgical rehabilitation, and women's and children's services. Each year, the graduates continue to raise the bar, promoting initiatives that not only align with the values of the hospital and profession but also revolutionize the way we go about our business.

The Insight program provides graduates with the opportunity not only to initiate, implement, and evaluate a quality initiative project but also to gain a deeper understanding of organizational initiatives, participate in shared decision-making, and have a voice within the organization.

Insight stands for New Eyes, Enhanced Vision.


How to apply

Apply through the graduate portal on the Queensland Health careers website. You can also join the mailing list.

The applications portal is only open for a few weeks between July and August. However, applications are valid for 12 months. A secondary application portal might be offered. This is at OCNMOs discretion. Make sure you check the application dates on the graduate portal and apply before the closing date.

The application process can take 2 to 3 months including interviews.

Who can apply

Learn about the eligibility criteria on the Queensland Health careers website.

Quick reference guides

Use the quick reference guide relevant to your qualification below. This will help support your application.

This will tell you how to choose your preferred places to work in Metro South Health and clinical preferences. Each ward or unit has instructions and a special code to enter in the free text box to describe your ideal work environment.

Contact us

Email MS_NM_Graduate_Support@health.qld.gov.au if you have questions about the graduate programs or your preferences.

Last updated: July 2024